This invention relates generally to devices for securing elongate items, such as wires, cables, hoses, tubing, conduits etc. More particularly, the invention relates to clamp ties that secure such items to a standoff in a spaced relationship to each other.
Various devices have been developed for securing elongate items such as wires, cables, hoses, tubing, conduits, etc. Among these devices are clamps that secure a pair of such items in spaced, parallel relationship with each other. Examples of such clamps are shown in U.S. Pat. No. 5,966,781 and U.S. Pat. No. 6,240,602.
Although effective in securing elongate items to each other, and adapted to slip over a supporting structure, neither of the devices shown in these patents made provision for supporting secured items about a standoff having a shouldered construction. Such need arises, for example, in the trucking, automotive or other industry wherein a pair of hoses, lines or cables are to be spaced from each other and can be mounted to a vehicle frame member on a standoff incorporating lateral protrusions, or a shouldered area, proximate a support surface.
In addition to failing to compensate for shouldered support structures, prior devices had a fairly limited range of object diameters that could be secured thereby. One reason that prior devices were limited to few diameters is because the prior devices maintained an uninterrupted transition from the locking head to the respective straps. In other words, any object supporting structure extending from the locking heads of prior devices limited the range of strap motion, thereby limiting the sizes of elongate articles that could be bundled securely.
Although prior components solved problems associated with predecessor ties, the solutions involved designs incorporating substantial wall thickness, thereby requiring extensive cure time during manufacture and substantial raw materials. Even where proper cure time was provided, the surfaces of the prior devices would exhibit deformations caused by the cooling of the material.
Therefore, the art of bundling elongate objects would benefit from improvements to support structure and strap interfaces while at the same time reducing the amount of materials required and reducing cure time during manufacture.